Is your phone & broadband provider any good?

rickbonar

I'm with talktalk and plusnet at 2 different addresses.

The plusnet one is on a line provided by the post office. ie post office for phone and plusnet 4 broadband.

Funny thing is the connection speed with plusnet is only 3 to 4 mbs per sec but it often seems faster than the talktalk line which regularly shows up as 18 mbs. Although I can say from experience the router/modem can have a large bearing on this.

I have had problems with talk talk broadband but the phone service works well and if you go for anytime calls package will save you money.
The broadband problems were down to the "free" modems they sent out... do yourself a favour get a good quality branded one.
All in though it's been OK for me ... the customer service when you have to phone isn't good but then I never phone them.
Post office phones is a good service and with great extras thrown in like free calls to mobiles on the weekend. I can recommend them.
Plusnet is a good one too for light users.

Something heavier then I'd go again for talktalk as long you don't have to phone customer services (which you rarely do).

These above are all quite good I find.

I've got to say the worst service I've ever been with all-round and chock full with bad slimy underhand deals was BT.

BT has dreadful customer service designed to confuse and obfuscate and rip off prices and poor intermittent speeds. An awful company that really ought to be broken up and liquidated as it tries to monopolise anything it can.

Beats me why anyone stays with them?

sharrison01

I'm with Virgin for my phone, broadband and TV and cannot fault any of them in any way. The broadband is a fibre line so it is far quicker than most people would need and I work from home some of the time so need a quick line, which it certainly is. I rarely have any problems with them and if I ever do then it is easy to speak with them and an engineer is typically out within a day or two. The phone line works perfectly well and the TV is great for the price.

I have been with them for three years and have had two engineer call outs for minor TV issues. Other than that, I get a letter once a year when my contract is up notifying me of a price increase - as an example, this year my total monthly bill went from £49.00 to £49.50 for the full TV (no sky movies or sports), phone line with free evenings and weekend calls and a 10mg line (always get 9mg+ on a test). I queried this increase and managed to negotiate a 30mg line with wireless router for a reduced price of £44.50 per month with £20 credited to my account for loyalty. I can't really see how this can be faulted!?!

It is a shame that Virgin's fibre line is not available to everyone because I would hate to have use one of these smaller companies that it appears do not offer anything near as good. They are great market leaders with regards to speed as well with a 50mg line already available to me and a 200mg line being tested at the moment and planned to be released next year. Makes shopping around the minor companies to save a couple of £'s seem rather pointless when you get good peace of mind...

reddbamboo

In a recent "Which" survey of 4500 members (November 2010) the top three phone / broadband providers where;

Utility Warehouse 79%
Plusnet 75%
O2 73%

[Deleted User]

Current Provider:
o2 for both Landline & unlimited bandwith usage broadband (up to 20mb d/l speed & 1mb upload speed)
How long?
For broadband since 2008
For landline since they first offered that service about 18 months ago.

How do I rate my experience with o2 both for my actual experience and in comparison with all my previous suppliers:
9.5/10 Excellent
How do I rate o2 on a value for money basis:
9.5/10 Excellent

** I still use 1899 and 18185 for all calls to mobiles and overseas numbers and weekday daytime calls to 01/02/03 numbers. Prior to moving to o2 for landline I also used Primus Saver Option 2 for fee-free evening & weekend calls to landlines for free calls.

Who were my previous providers and how do I rate the experience I had:

Landline:
BT continuously until I moved to o2.
I rate them as 5/10 poor for almost the whole time I was with them.
Over many years I had so many incidences of such terrible customer service that I would never, ever go back to them *even* if they offered me what I currently get for half the price fixed for ever!

Broadband:
AOL for several years until 2005.
I rate them as 6.5/10 - poor to middling service and poor value.

Freedom2surf until mid-2007.
I rate the first year as 8.5/10 - very good service and value. Sadly when they got taken over by Pipex it went down hill very quickly and very badly.
I rate the last year with them as 4/10 - very poor service.

TalkTalk for 3 'prisoner' months in 2007.
I actually tried to stop the move before it had even taken place as they cut off my freedom2surf connection a month earlier than the correct start date. Then began a 3 month nightmare in HELL - which was actually made significantly worse by BT and their 'OpenReach' arm. I never actually paid TalkTalk a single penny for the 3 months of landline (and 2 months of broadband connection - I was without any internet connection for 1 month), and they ended up agreeing to pay additional £50 goodwill *and* the total cost of a substantial connection fee to my next provider (see below).
How would I rate TalkTalk?
I rate TalkTalk 0/10 - the phone and broadband company from HELL.

IDNET - 1 year until 2008.
They were simply excellent. A real breath of fresh year and in terms of service without doubt they are truly excellent.
I rate IDNET as 9.5/10 for service but only 8/10 for price.
I simply could not afford to stay with IDNET based on the amount of bandwith I was using, so as soon as o2 started a service with substantial discounts for an o2 mobile phone user (which I have been since the year 2000) and based on the fact they had taken over 'Be' and all the reviews were good, I moved to them.

Conclusion

If I could afford it I would still be with IDNET (or even Zen) simply because I would prefer to support a smaller company.

However, I have to say that o2 have consistently provided me with an almost perfect broadband experience for 3 years and, in the last year or so, a perfect landline experience.
Value for money is virtually unbeatable - I still pay only £16 per month - in total - for Landline with free evening/weekend calls to 01/02/03 numbers and unlimited broadband. And I am *still* able to use 1899/18185.
And all I have to do to maintain that price is top up my PAYG o2 mobile by at least £10 every 3 months. Which is perfect for me because I would be hard put to spend more than £5 a month if I tried!

georgiebest7

Not surprised at how badly Tiscali/TalkTalk are faring. I was with them till last year, when I was with Tiscali, the price was peanuts so I didn't mind putting up with the poor service but they were bought by TalkTalk and the price went up by £4 a month but the service was still as poor.

I have since moved to Plusnet, for slightly more. I pay £22.49 per month for 60GB downloads (no limits from midnight to 8am) and get evening + weekend calls. Not sure where Customer Services are based but they are quite helpful. There were problems with my line and they had engineers come out and fix it. On the day I signed up, I was told I would get speeds around the 3 to 3.5 Mbps mark and it has been pretty accurate. During peak hours 7 to 10pm the speed does drop a bit closer to 2 Mbps but still enough to watch videos on iPlayer with no buffering problems whatsoever.

Funnily enough, even though the line is exactly the same my speed has seen a dramatic improvement ever since I moved to Plusnet.

I would have no problems recommending Plusnet whatsoever.